Confusing referent

[bellinghman]

The following comes from an article on the BBC News site:

Its main armament - The Principal Anti Air Missile System (PAAMS), known as Sea Viper - weighs as much as a small car, can accelerate to twice the speed of Concorde (Mach 4, about 2700 mph) in under 10 seconds, and has a range of more than 400km.

It also has its own hospital facilities - complete with operating table - 44 showers, 54 heads and 100 wash basins. However, it has just one bath.

Is it just me, or is that quite a missile? And though it's good for the missile to deliver not just death and destruction but also hospital facilities, is there really a need to provide 54 lavatories too?

(I'd not have misread this if that second quoted paragraph had started 'The ship' rather than 'It'.)

Comments

[tisiphone.livejournal.com]

That second sentence is annoyingly structured as well, implying that the hospital facilities include 44 showers and so on. A devotion to sanitation is a positive in a hospital, but I think that's really a bit much.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Certainly over-the-top for a hospital intended for the care of 190 crew.

[erikvolson.livejournal.com]

Obviously, it's a kinetic energy weapon.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Porcelain shrapnel is not something I'd want to encounter as a warhead.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Doing some digging it seems that PAAMS (which has been around for years) has only been known as 'Sea Viper' since, er, yesterday, when the MOD presumably decided it needed a cool and punchy name.

Mind you, it's a darn sight more likely to induce fear in the enemy than Sea Slug.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Viper seems to be a popular name for a missile. At least this one is reaching deployment, unlike some of the projects that had this name.